International Journal of

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Neighborhoods within the hierarchy of urban structure are one of the smallest socio-physical building blocks of cities. Traditional neighborhoods of Iranian historic cities benefited from strong social relations which were flourished over the years and were manifested in the neighborhoods centers. In the modern era, the new master plans and the complementary local plans have disintegrated these neighborhoods both physically and socially. While old traditional neighborhoods were destroyed and new car oriented streets and highways have disrupted the traditional neighborhood life, the introduction of metro stations have provided a nucleus for neighborhoods around which urban space and social activity could emerge once more. In this respect, the attitudes of residents towards metro stations are very important. This study focuses on the social attitudes and the evaluation of traffic impacts of metro stations on adjacent neighborhoods. Therefore, the changes in traffic patterns as well as social characteristics and residential satisfaction levels in two neighborhoods adjacent to metro stations are studied through a questionnaire survey. The results show that despite the potentials provided, metro stations had adverse affects on both social integration and residential satisfaction levels. They also adversely affected neighborhoods in terms of traffic flow through increase in local traffic, demand for parking, and increase in noise pollution. Lack of attention to the new potentials turned them into threats and weakened the already damaged neighborhood structures.

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High temperature and air pollution are the most important limitations of providing fresh air in the hot-humid climate of Asalouye City. This leads to the continuous use of mechanical cooling by the residents, and consequently, increases energy consumption and decreases the indoor air quality. Particulate Matter, Volatile Organic Compounds, and microorganisms are the three main categories of air pollutants. Fiber filters and Electro-filters are the most common methods of purifying PMs from the air. High efficiency, removal of a wide range of particles, low-pressure drop, and no need for replacement are the advantages of the electrostatic method. In this study, through simulation in Ansys-Fluent 2021 software, the performance of a cooling system which is designed with the combination of a window, an electrostatic precipitator, a cooling coil, and an exhaust fan was checked in reducing the concentration of PMs and pre-cooling the air before entering the building and providing the standard ventilation rate. The findings showed that at the air speed of 1^m/s and 6^m/s, the system can completely remove copper, nickel, and sulfur particles with a diameter of 0.1^µ and 10^µ. In addition, the distance between the air inlet of the system (window opening) and its air outlet (where air enters the interior) affects the reduction level of particles. The proposed cooling coil can reduce the air temperature by only 2^°C. If there is no wind, an exhaust fan that provides a pressure jump equal to 250^Pa to 500^Pa will cause the airflow and provide the standard ventilation rate.

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House is considered not only as one of the main needs of human beings but also as one of the best determining characteristics of living standard. Housing shortages is one of the most acute problems next to the rapid growth of the large cities and their suburbs in developing countries. These cities take all the opportunities, services and the funds Which a country has to offer,, Despite this fact,, These cities are still dealing and struggling with a variety of urban problems such as : housing shortages, high unemployment rate, urban transportation problems and failure to supply other services, as well as environmental destruction. As the direct result of the allocation of all the resources to the large cities, the other regions of the country, including small cities and the rural areas have become stagnant and underdeveloped. The efforts to speed up the development of the small cities have been intensified to deal with the lack of equilibrium and harmony created by the unbalanced growth and development of the cities. To guide and monitor these developments, the Urban Regional Development and Planning was found to ensure and emphasize dynamism of the small cities. Small cities development can have an effect on the region only if these cities' development is sustainable and Takes place properly therefore, sustainable urban development is one of the requirements for the regional development approach. Housing and its appropriate development is one of the affecting and important factors in achieving urban development and realization of sustainable development in small cities. This article discusses housing's place and its role in the process of achieving sustainable urban development in small cities based on its characteristics and indicators and refers these cities' function in the regional development planning.

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Based on a gender equity perspective and within a pluralistic civil society, women should have equal rights for presence in and use of urban open spaces. Despite this, various factors decrease their presence including inappropriate design of space, as well as socio-cultural obstacles. Since women’s major place of presence and activity has traditionally been in or near home, neighborhood open space is chosen as a relevant case study. Through a questionnaire survey of 180 subjects, 90 male and 90 female, of both marital status the criteria affecting their presence are investigated. Results show that environmental quality factors are more effective than socio-cultural factors on presence of women in urban open spaces.

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Abstract The Qajar dynasty was a time of civil wars as well as the wars against Russia, meanwhile, Qajarid Shahs, understanding the power of sublime art both in internal and external political relations, tried to expand and renew the style of the mural decorations which is the issue of this article. Increasing the relations with European countries like England and France, Fath Ali Shah and his court were influenced by European diplomacy, culture and art. Also they were deeply inspired by pre-Islamic royal and artistic concepts and styles. Early Qajarid murals were the obvious return to tradition this study tries to identify the sources and socio-political reasons that lead to this movement. In the other hand, realizing the function of the mural decoration and political determination of the king and his court in early Qajarid period, which moved away from the common Zand theme and function (the Persian former dynasty) and followed the imperial art of the Achaemenid and Sasanid eras, can explain their formation of historical compositions and majesty of their artworks. By the seventeenth century, as a result of extended contacts with Europe the unfamiliar tradition of painting in oil on canvas was gaining currency among Persian artists. Although the medium was borrowed from European painting, the style remained largely indigenous. The influence of imperial Sassanian and Achaemenid themes also appeared on the carved figural reliefs. Mural decoration and art were led to serve political affairs in order to legitimise the Qajar dynasty.

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There are many evident that people are more interested in walking in attractive urban spaces and inappropriate physical and psychological condition can reduce their presence in a remarkable amount. The current research investigates the influence of physical design and psychological elements and their criteria on selective physical activity and specifically walking in urban public spaces. However there are some limitations in determining specifications of physical and psychological design which have effects on walking, meanwhile the urban planning elements, transportation and crime prevention via environmental design are developed strategies which have potentials for influencing the rate of pedestrian-oriented state of urban spaces. The research frameworks which are extracted from the complex of these elements include 5 applied criteria of safety, aesthetics, destination and (environmental) security which are specified by use of documentation and library method. In this paper, the public general spaces of Farahzad village were selected by field study and by help of questioning technique which its statistical community included 12 urban planning experts, the mentioned criteria were analyzed by Analytic Network Process. The results indicates that the quality of physical design and the psychological elements have major effect on pedestrian-oriented state of urban spaces and the importance degree of each criterion in determining the rate of pedestrian-oriented state of urban spaces of Farahzad village included the aesthetics, security and applied indicators in a value level, destination and safety. Meanwhile, the most pedestrian-oriented spaces of Farahzad village were specified by considering the mentioned criteria and by use of Analytic Network Process. Cognition of this issue will help the above-mentioned options to overcome their challenges which are creating attractive and dynamic urban space via improving the condition.

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This paper classifies green envelopes as green roofs and green walls according to effective factors, which were derived from literature to compare the green envelopes’ thermal and energy performance in a more effective way. For this purpose, an extensive literature review was carried out by searching keywords in databases and studying related journal papers and articles. The research method for this study was bibliographic and logical reasoning. The paper proposes five classification factors: contextual factors, greenery factors, scale factors and surface and integration factors. It also demonstrates the influence of physical and geometrical properties of plants and their supporting structures on the thermal performance of green envelopes. The paper argues that climatic conditions also have an important role on the thermal behavior of green envelopes and it determines the types of greenery integration into building envelopes.

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Due to audiences’ diversity, local cultural spaces have the highest share in residents’ mass life. Therefore, these spaces are the necessary environment for social relations and face-to-face communication of residents of urban area. If these are well qualified, welfare would be promoted. This study aims at identifying and evaluating factor influencing quality of local cultural spaces and aims to recognize and prioritize the factor using AHP analytical hierarchical process so as to promote them. This applied study has a descriptive-analytical basis with a population of 75 experts in urban planning and cultural matters and academic staff used as participants. First, the quality criteria of cultural space was determined based on the 4 main criteria and 26 sub-criteria in a hierarchical tree. Then experts were asked to score the major and minor criteria and specify their priorities based on paired comparisons. Applying the Expert Choice which implements the AHP, the weights of each criterion and sub-criterion were estimated respectively. Finally, according to the study’s aim, priorities were determined. The results obtained showed that the physical criteria, weighting 0.557, got the first priority and it was followed by social (0.162), economic (0.148) and environmental (0.133) criteria which got the second to the fourth rank. The sub-criteria affecting the "quality of cultural spaces" of the physical structure included safety, human scale and availability.

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Informal settlement as a global urban phenomenon encounters different social, physical and economic shortcomings. These fabrics especially in cities of the global south experience an escalating gap with developed urban areas. In this regard, faltering economy plays a major contribution in continuity of poverty and exclusion. In Iran, Empowerment plan could not lead to favorable and stable results which has mainly been related to stereotypic, homogenizing and dehumanizing viewpoints to current empowerment plans. As regards the ultimate effectiveness of place branding becomes true in economic context and these settlements are one of suitable candidates for branding, the main aim of this study is improving economic empowerment plans realization for informal settlements through integration urban planning with place branding process to determine more efficient strategies for falak-e-din informal neighborhood by its identity and discovering how place branding, economic empowerment and place identity have conceptual, practical relations with each other to signify this integration. The method of present study is mainly qualitative which is best to cognition of place complexities. Falak-E-Din settlement, has been selected as the case study because it benefits from place market maker advantages and yet encounters the threat of identity crisis. Surveying practical and theoretical facets of Results show place branding with a focus on marketing view is trying to use all aspects of the place(as a complete identity) to draw the image of economic prosperity through comprehensive branding strategy. The findings from analysis of gathered data from inhabitants(observation, interview and archival data) by SWOT and evaluation through brand creation process in Falak-E-Din quarter by ANP ( Analytic Network Process) based on evaluation criteria- reveal the best alternative for creating Falak-E-Din quarter brand is to provide brand strategies based on the brand identity which is built with an emphasis on quarter human factors. Accordingly brand strategies are codified at four main steps to create chosen brand identity: create direct and indirect job opportunities, physical elicitation of place personality with execution of physical components of the brand identity, physical complementary proceedings, and eventually marketing proceedings which include final actions that lead the place to its economic purposes.

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This study examines how analogy affects problem-solving in ideation phase of design among architects and engineers. For this purpose, a design problem was given to master and Ph.D. students of engineering and architecture. They were given two optional analogy sources to choose and be inspired by one. From the analysis of design sessions, using different coding groups and the application of the Protocol analysis, the following results were achieved. Choosing different analogies would cause application of different levels of abstraction by designers in design, considering their discipline. Also, choosing between two analogies would affect mainly the behaviour of engineers in the problem space. For architects choosing between different analogies do not affect their problem solving or structuring so much but it affects their problem space monitoring mainly. Finally, architects benefit from analogy mostly for problem solving.

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The damages of COVID-19 to people's lives have highlighted the need for the usage of technologies to improve health. For this purpose, the identification of available technologies could facilitate the fight against COVID-19. This manuscript aims to explore the effective technologies existing in the literature on Interactive Architecture because these technologies are embedded in the daily life of individuals to respond to the real-time needs of people. Therefore, we conducted a scoping review in the Web of Science and Scopus databases, with no time and paper type limitations. Selected papers were categorized based on their content. Also, the guidelines for combating COVID-19 (based on the WHO and the national government tips) were reviewed and categorized. Afterward, the papers that shared the same themes by guidelines were selected to extract the technologies introduced in them. Finally, usage has been proposed for each of the technologies. Also, we examined the effectiveness of the technologies in the proposed sectors by asking about the experts' viewpoints. As result, we found that interactive ventilation, flexible walls, and eHealth technologies could be effective for the promotion of physical health during COVID-19. In that vein, interactive installations (such as interactive furniture) could improve mental health during quarantine by extending the space and providing the opportunity to connect with the outside world. Also, the virtual education environment was the most effective technology for education challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic.